Millionaires stand in support of the Buffett Rule

April 11, 2012

President Obama met with some of America’s most successful businesspeople and entrepreneurs—all millionaires—to talk taxes this morning.

They came to the White House to show their support for the Buffett Rule, a bill up for a vote in Congress next week that would make sure the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share in taxes. Noting that two-thirds of America’s millionaires support the Buffett Rule, the President said:

The people who have joined me here today are extremely successful. They’ve created jobs and opportunity for thousands of Americans. They’re rightly proud of their success. They love the country that made their success possible, and most importantly, they want to make sure that the next generation, people coming up behind them, have the same opportunities that they had.

They understand, though, that for some time now, when compared to the middle class, they haven’t been asked to do their fair share. And they are here because they believe there is something deeply wrong and irresponsible about that.

Now, it’s not that these folks are excited about the idea of paying more taxes … In a perfect world, none of us would have to pay any taxes. We’d have no deficits to pay down. And schools and bridges and roads and national defense and caring for our veterans would all happen magically.

And it would be nice if we didn't have to pay for them, but this is the real world that we live in. We have real choices and real consequences. Right now, we’ve got significant deficits that are going to have to be closed. Right now, we have significant needs if we want to continue to grow this economy and compete in this 21st-century, hyper-competitive, technologically integrated economy. That means we can’t afford to keep spending more money on tax cuts for wealthy Americans who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them. And it’s time we did something about it.